>Luis,
>
>Your comments on the new Epson sounds very promising. Instead of a paper
>negative, how about a new negative made as a contact print onto a
>panchromatic sheet film (to make sure that all six colors of dots make it
>through the process) from a paper positive made on the Epson? This would get
Gee, Charlie, all I can say, is "Why didn't I think of that myself?"
>around the problem with the lack of permanence of the Epson inks. Even if
>negatives made directly onto acetate with this printer turn out to be good
>enough for carbon/pt/pd etc, the panchromatic film neg might be a better
>approach because of the lability of inks.
Especially since panchromatic film is *fast* so one should easily obtain a
film negative from the paper positive with a relatively short exposure.
>Please keep the list posted about your experience with this new Epson. If it
>is as good as it sounds, this printer might eliminate our dependence on
>service bureaus and imagesetters and make digital negatives much easier and
>cheaper than they have been in the past. Using the methods that I described
>in my postings about digital methods a couple of months ago, it shouldn't be
>too much trouble to adapt the output of the Epson to most B&W alt-processes.
You sent me some beautiful razor sharp palladiotypes last year, off very
expensive half-tone negs. The above approach would not match that but
surely there are plenty of cases where super sharp results are not
desirable or pointless because of the subject matter or the type of
textured paper used.
Humm... If I don't buy this printer I will probably buy the next
generation. The way things are going this shouldn't take more than a few
weeks;-)
BTW, if out in the boondocks here we can see print samples from the new
Epson printer I'm sure you can do the same just about anywhere on this
continent. Go see for yourself.
Luis Nadeau
NADEAUL@NBNET.NB.CA
Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
http://www3.nbnet.nb.ca/nadeaul/